Speed governors to be a must for school buses

As a step towards the safety of school children, the district administration and the RTO have decided to put a brake on over-speeding by school bus drivers.

From the next academic session, vehicles ferrying students would be fitted with speed governors.

Once this is done, buses/vans would not be able to exceed a speed of 40 km per hour.

A higher official said that the district administration will take educational institutions and transport operators into confidence over the step.

RTO AP Singh said, “We will follow the directives of the district administration as safety of students is of prime importance. I will lay stress on regular checking of school vehicles as I have learnt that only 50 to 60% of them have fitness certificates. A special drive would be conducted to issue fitness certificate to every bus/van used to ferry students.”

District magistrate Anurag Yadav said: “Apart from speed control devices, other norms for school transport would be implemented. In the first round, we are sensitising transport owners and in the next round, the district administration would ensure that every school van/bus is fitted with speed governors.”

Bus drivers violating norms would initially be warned and then punished. Manish Singh, director, SKD Academy, said: “The schools would surely cooperate with the district administration, like in the past. Most of the city schools cooperate with the administration and this issue is no different.”

Last year, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had directed its affiliated schools to follow certain norms vis-a-vis transportation of students.

According to the guidelines, the exterior of the bus must be painted with uniform colour, preferably yellow, with the name of the school written on both sides of the bus.